ARC Review: The Importance of Being Wicked by Victoria Alexander

…it doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom for you to have a book containing a well drawn hero and heroine” ~ Under the Covers

Winfield Elliott, Viscount Stillwell has had three fiancees but has yet to see the altar and has no current desire to look for his fourth, especially now that his family’s home has burned down. So the last thing he expects when he hires an architect firm to rebuild his country home was the widowed Lady Miranda Garrett to step out of her carriage, in her ugly shoes, and start to take charge of not just the rebuilding of his home, but his heart as well. Miranda has always secretly wanted a wicked man, and Winfield Elliott does have a certain reputation but instead of finding him charming and flirtatious he was rather…annoying and stodgy, why hasn’t he kissed her yet?

I am newly converted to Victoria Alexander, I love her brand of light hearted and funny historical romance. Although I have only read a few of Ms Alexander’s books with each one she has created likable and dimensional characters, which just proves it doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom for you to have a book containing a well drawn hero and heroine. What she also excels at is dialogue, the banter was witty and funny, even when the couple argued (which happened a lot) making a perma-smile appear on my face whilst I was reading The Importance of Being Wicked.

However, if you are looking for a truly wicked hero then you have come to the wrong book, although Winfield was charming and a flirt he didn’t strike me as at all wicked. When it came down to it he was just a very nice man who has previously had very bad taste in fiancees, luckily I have a soft spot for charming yet nice men. Of both of them, it was Miranda who was the most shocking (for her time) being a woman of business. Miranda also went through an ugly duckingesque transformation as she gains more confidence and I liked seeing her stand up for herself; my favourite parts of the book are seeing her tell various people off, including Win.

The only part of the book I didn’t like was towards the end where all sorts of misunderstanding happen that seemed to pop out the blue and didn’t serve any kind of purpose and to me read a lot like page filler. Luckily by then I already liked the book and the people in it so it baffled me that this was put in.

A great read, I am definitely going to continue exploring more of Victoria Alexander’s books and look forward to the next book in this series.

*ARC provided by publisher

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[about-author author=”Victoria Alexander”]